Interrupted card clothing



Oct. 24, 1961 c. w. WORLEY 3,005,239

INTERRUPTED CARD CLOTHING Filed Sept. 15. 1959 2/ 2 2/ jflllllllllllll umm anlmmm|n States atent Ofi Ece 3,005,239 Patented Oct. 24, 1961 3,005,239 INTERRUPTED CARD CLGTHING Charles W. Worley, Dahlonega, Ga, assignor to James Lees and Sons Company Filed Sept. 15, 1959, Ser. No. 840,082 2 Claims. (Cl. 19-406) This invention pertains to carding machines and more particularly to an apparatus for producing yarns having varying weight per unit length.

The present invention carries forward the disclosure of Jervis Patent No. 2,847,717 and provides a much simpler method for producing irregular or slub yarns of the type generally shown in Jervis and at substantially reduced costs.

The improved doifer for the card cylinder constructed in accordance with the present invention utilizes strips of card clothing alternating with smooth bands of uniform width which separate the strips of clothing axially on the doifer cylinder. Instead of the very costly and expensive operation of varying the width of bands of card clothing as described in the Jervis patent, the present invention contemplates the attachment of a series of strips of clothing, each strip being of uniform width and the plain bands or spacers between the clothing strips also being of uniform width. The much greater facility of attaching and repairing the present doifer is a decided advantage over previous devices of this nature.

A primary object of the present invention, therefore, is to provide a doffer cylinder for a carding machine having a series of axially extending valleys in the clothing which are preferably ground down to provide arcuate depressions in the clothing strips.

Further details of the invention will be set forth hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic elevation of a carding machine embodying a doffer made in accordance with the present invention,

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional detail as seen at 2-2 of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional detail as seen at 33 of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary perspective of the dofier cylinder, and

FIGURE 5 is an end view of a portion of the structure of FIGURE 4.

Referring now to the drawings, the present invention provides a dotter which may be employed on a conventional carding machine. With reference to FIGURE 1, the conventional carding machine is shown as comprising a feed apron for delivering a loose web to the feed rolls 11, 11 of the carding machine. The feed rolls 11 advance the fibrous material to a licker-in 12 which in turn deposits the fibers on the main cylinder 13 of the carding machine. The fibrous material is successively carded at carding stations about the periphery of the main cylinder, each carding station consisting of a worker 14 and stripper 15. The carded web on the main cylinder is removed by a doffer 16, as described more fully hereinafter, in the form of a plurality of slivers of varying weight per unit length. The slivers are stripped from the doifer with or without the use of a doflier comb 17 and deposited on a conveyor 18 which may be a rub motion which imparts a false twist to the sliver which is then wound on jack spools prior to spinning.

In accordance with the invention, the doffer strips the sliver which varies in weight per unit length and, therefore, produces a slub yarn. To this end, the doffer 16 is provided with bands of clothing 21 of substantially uniform Width and separated from each other by plain steel bands 22, 22. Each of the bands of clothing is provided with arcuate ground-out valleys 23, 23 around the periphery of the doifer cylinder. These valleys in the preferred form may be spaced about It)" apart circumferentially. This dimension, however, will depend largely upon the desired frequency of the slubs in the yarn. Satisfactory slubs are provided if the ground-down valleys are approximately 3" in circumferential length around the periphery of the doffer and are less than half of the total radial height of the clothing, disregarding the base material 24, in which the wires forming the clothing are embedded. It is highly desirable that the valleys 23 are not ground down to such a depth that all of the clothing is removed therein, because this would leave areas of fiber on the card cylinder.

It will be understood that the relative number of valleys around the periphery of the doffer, as well as the axial spacing thereof, may be varied to provide the exact type of yarn desired. However, the importance of the present invention resides in the ability to apply the uniform width strips of clothing and blank strips to the shell 25 of the doifer 16 without the necessity for accurate fitting of each strip. The device is relatively inexpensive and simple to apply without high labor costs.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In apparatus for producing irregular yarn continuously varying in weight per unit length along the length thereof, a carding set including a main cylinder and a generally cylindrical doffer coextensive in length with said main cylinder, and mounted adjacent thereto, said dofl'er having bands of card clothing mounted circumferentially thereof, said bands being of a uniform axial dimension about the complete circumference of said dotfer, the bases of said bands defining a radially uniform concentric path around the periphery of the doifer, a substantially long arcuate peripheral area extending circumferentially around each band, and a plurality of arcuate depressions in each clothing hand between said uniform arcuate areas.

2. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 in which the depressions in each clothing strip are axially aligned.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

